


In the Cards for Us

by blueorangecrush



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 19:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13620543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/pseuds/blueorangecrush
Summary: In Spokane, Tyler was the weird kid who played solitaire.  When he signs with Tampa, he finds friends who will play with him.





	In the Cards for Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy/gifts).



It was a quirk, in Spokane.  One his teammates laughed at Tyler, and he rolled his eyes, because it’s not nice to mock other people’s superstitious rituals.  He didn’t make fun of the other guys and plenty of _them_ had their own things.

There was Sito, who always called someone (his sister? Tyler isn’t sure) and left a weird complicated message on whoever’s voicemail.  There was Spurg and his pint of chocolate milk drunk through a bendy straw and how upset he was when he forgot to make sure he had a bendy straw and had to either use a regular straw or go without.  There’s - well, whatever the hell weird shit the goalies always got up to, Tyler’s never been sure he even would want to know, but fuck, goalies are _weird dudes_ and the Spokane dudes were no exception _._

Tyler felt like he was outright normal - he just liked to play solitaire.  With cards, not with the computer or phone or whatever.  Something about the way they felt in his hand, separate from anything else he did anywhere else, made the difference.  He usually played the standard game, but sometimes he’d mix it up with other versions, which only added to the nonsense chirping that included Sito singing that stupid Hundred Games of Solitaire at him.  

He didn’t care.  Mostly.

—

In Norfolk, he started learning games that aren’t solitaire, because apparently the guys who came in through the NCAA liked to play cards on roadies.  So Killer and Coco started teaching whatever games work for whatever size group of people they could get to play with them.

It didn’t go so well when they were trying to teach Tyler and Pally how to play Mao and they can’t agree with _each other_ on the rules.  Apparently the Harvard variant was pretty different from how they played it in Buffalo.  So they all went back to playing Spades and sometimes even Go Fish, because at least they could agree on the rules for those.

Killer had a theory, apparently, that playing cards on the team bus would help the team play more effectively on the ice.  They would learn more about how their teammates thought, or something.  It seemed like a pretty weird theory to Tyler - but the thing was? It also started _working._

When the Calder Cup playoffs started, Killer and Coco apparently got together and hashed out a common variant of Mao, and then “taught” it, through trial and error, to the rest of the team.  

They got past the Monarchs without much trouble.  The Whale was another matter - the games were closer, and it took six in all, two in overtime, to move on.  

When they had to head out all the way to Newfoundland to play the Ice Caps, the whole team played one huge game of Mao with ten decks of cards that lasted for hours, and Tyler was very proud of managing to stick Killer with sixty-four penalty cards because he couldn’t keep a sevens streak going, plus a sixty-fifth for swearing.

Coach saw the gigantic fucking pile of cards, more than a whole _deck,_ and even he had to chuckle a bit.

Mao was working for them - it was giving them just enough excuse to get stressed out and yell at each other over something that wasn’t actually important, but with rules to make them stop yelling at each other pretty fast.  Good stress relief.  And as Tyler got better at making plays off of Pally, he wondered if Killer had been on to something.

Or maybe it was just that Pally was awesome and Tyler loved playing with him.

Sweeping the Ice Caps felt good.  Sweeping the Marlies in the final and winning the Calder Cup felt even better.

“Think this is awesome? Should try it again in the show sometime.  I bet we can make it.”

Tyler's not sure which of his teammates whispers that to him in the excited group hug, but he agrees.

—

Of course, Tyler hadn’t - none of them had - realized that they were all going to be relocated to a new AHL affiliate the next season.  Or that there would be no chance to make the NHL, not to start, because there was a fucking _lockout_ instead.

Killer ranted a lot about the economics involved, about how the NHL was just shooting itself in the foot because stunts like this decreased market share and they’d get less money, so this only made sense if it was really about paying the players less and not about making money or putting together a better product.  Kind of depressing thought, but there it was.  Tyler sure wasn’t going to try to make sense of it.

Syracuse was a lot snowier than Norfolk, a little colder, but the team settled in okay there.  As settled as anyone could get without knowing what the NHL was going to do and when they were going to do it.

When the NHL season finally started, Tyler and Pally were still in Syracuse, but Coco and Killer got their call-ups.  Tyler got to go to Tampa for a little while, and Pally did too, but they were sent back down to take another run at the Calder Cup.  

It wasn’t the same - Killer wasn’t there, and Coco had been traded to another team entirely - but Tyler tried to get the team to spend time together, the way they had the year before. There was no crazy nine-deck game of Mao, but there was a lot of trading seats and piling into hotel rooms without really caring where they were actually assigned, just to have each other.  Sometimes Tyler and Pally would look at each other and nod, each taking a “side” of the bus to check in with, but in the end they would always end up together.  

Tyler liked being close to Pally.  Sometimes - sometimes he thought he liked it a little _too_ much.  And that was the last thing he wanted messing up his hockey, or his team, or his friendships.

Anyway, whatever they were doing was still working - they swept Portland, swept Springfield, _almost_ swept Wilkes-Barre.  It was incredible to be doing all of this all over again.  Tyler felt like he was magic, like _they_ were magic, unstoppable, incapable of doing anything wrong.

The magic ran out just in time for the finals.  They got so close but they couldn’t take the Griffins down, couldn’t pull off the repeat.

Pally kept on trying to tell Tyler that _he_ was the magic, he was the spark.  Tyler wasn’t sure he believed it, and that felt like an awful lot of pressure, even if it were true.

—

The next year, Tyler and Pally both made the team, and went from playing for the Calder Cup to playing for the Calder Trophy.  It was a rough year for the Bolts as a whole, but the two of them had given the fans hope for the future, that was what everyone kept telling them.  A seventh-round - _late_ seventh-round draft pick and a kid who went undrafted for being too short had put the NHL’s entire scouting network on notice, or so people kept trying to tell Tyler

The rest of the team was having problems, all kinds of problems, injuries and arguments between captain and coach that Tyler wasn’t entirely sure he understood, ending in a giant blockbuster trade and a sudden change in team leadership. 

It’s not that Tyler and Pally were insulated from it, exactly, but the two of them and Killer and the others who had been part of the Norfolk team that won the Calder Cup or the Syracuse team that almost did it again already _knew_ they had something good together, and they were able to hold onto it.  And it was up to them to spread it - card games could be played on the planes, in hotel rooms before and after. 

Killer had fancy words and fancier theories for why this worked, but that didn’t matter.  What mattered was that instead of giant team-wide games of Mao, he was picking shorter and simpler four-person games, insisting that Tyler and Pally play against him and usually Stammer.  And Tyler was getting fucking sick of losing to Killer all the time, but Killer just laughed and said that they’d have to keep playing against him until they started winning, after all, remember what the point of playing these games is supposed to be.

Right.  To understand your teammates and their thought processes better.  Killer was trying to tell Tyler that he needed to understand Pally better, which was weird, it’s not like they hadn’t played on a line together for _years_ or anything.  But he started to pick up Pally’s signals better, and one time he thought he could actually see Pally’s hand of cards superimposed on his own, and made plays based on that assumption.  They worked, and for the first time in a while Tyler got to see Killer lose.

It stayed like that outside the game, too, that weird almost-double vision.  Or - not stayed, really, but came and went, and it was obviously Pally-specific somehow.  And - maybe Tyler should have said something to the team doctor but that just sounded too weird and at best it would get him pulled from the game for suspicion of a concussion that Tyler’s damn sure he doesn’t have.  Right when it was starting to look like they might make the playoffs after all.  Tyler couldn’t risk that.

—

Being on the losing side of a playoff sweep was an unfamiliar pain for Tyler.  

“Next year,” Pally told him as they got ready for locker clean-out day.  “Next year’s our year.  Pinky swear.”

“Pinky swear, seriously?” Tyler laughed.

“Oh, you want something stronger?”

Tyler just looked at Pally, not sure how to respond. 

Pally’s idea of a response was to kiss him.

“What _took_ you so long?” Tyler almost-snapped, after they broke apart.

“I don’t know.  Before, it was never the right time, never worth the risk.  Games to focus on, especially playoff games, then leaving for the summer, then training camp to concentrate on, and then games again.  But now, we’re already trying to get over something, if you say no and I have to get over you it’s not that much worse but if you say yes it makes us both feel better.”

“What am I saying yes to?” Tyler asked.  “You know, just to be sure.”

“To _me_ , to us being together.  Not just linemates.”

“Okay, then.  Yes.”

"Good," Pally said with a soft smile. "And next year can be our year."

Tyler smiled, hoping Pally was right, and let that make him feel better about the cameras he was about to face.


End file.
